Jeppesen Tackles Apparent FlightDeck Software Bug

Jeppesen has assembled a team of engineers to look into complaints by users that the company’s latest electronic charting software, JeppView FlightDeck 3.0, can cause electronic flight bag (EFB) computers to crash without warning. Since April, dozens of business aircraft flight crews have apparently experienced the software glitch, which is said to affect EFB products from a number of suppliers. Paperless Cockpit, one of the best known makers of EFB hardware, has instructed customers to disconnect their GPS interfaces from the EFB units when using FlightDeck 3.0, as that seems to remedy the problem. The glitch appears to affect only customers using GPS information transmitted Shadin signal converter (Arinc 429 to RS232) and some Bendix/King panel-mount units. The hardware crashes typically occur immediately after launching the FlightDeck software, but they can also happen after the application has been running for several minutes, operators are reporting. Jeppesen does not yet have a software patch to correct the glitch, but a spokesman said the company is working on one.